About 63,000 parentless children placed into foster care in Russia in 2013

MOSCOW, April 20, /ITAR-TASS/. About 63,000 parentless children were placed into foster care with families in Russia in 2013, or by more than 1,500 more than a year before, the government said in a release posted on its website on Sunday.

“By March 1, 2014, the state database of parentless children had information about 104,841 children (126,574 - in 2011, 119,070 - in 2012, and 106,646 - in 2013),” the government said.

According to the Russian government, the annual number of children registered as orphans reduced by 46% (from 127,000 to 68,800) in a period from 2006 to 2013. Over this period, the number of children who need foster care went down by 40% (from 177,000 to 106,000).

In 2013, as many as 62,973 children were placed into foster care, or by 1,545 more than in 2012.